“Hi, Jane, come on in,’ Mary said as Jane came up the walk.
“You´re already bare. Okay if I strip, too?’
“Sure. Hang your stuff here. Makes it easy to find when you leave. Anne and Iris are here, we´re out by the pool.’
They stopped to open a Coke for Jane, then went into the sunshine. Mary settled on a lounge. Jane said, “Are you guys busy? I didn´t mean to interrupt.’
“No, Jane,’ Iris said, “We´re just yakking. Taking a break and getting some rays.’
“Anne, are you really pregnant? You sure don´t look it.’
“Four months, Jane. Just beginning to show a little, at least I think so. Feels great, so far.’
“Congratulations. I guess your breasts are a little bigger ... Uh, what did you do? Have a crapshoot?’
“What do you mean?’
“Sorry, I guess that sounds really crude. I mean, did you just let nature decide which of your husbands would be the father?’
“Exactly right, Jane. We had a genetic crapshoot. And I won. Say, you´re tan all over, I thought you were wearing a virtual suit.’
Jane looked around before answering. “Mary, can I sit next to you?’
“Sure, I´ll move over.’
“No, Anne, I told Dad I go bare here. I told him I´m happy that way and I´m safe here. And I told Mom I didn´t want to hear any more about it. ... Mom´s really confused these days.’
“I´ll bite. Why is that?’ Anne asked.
Jane giggled, “Mom knows that it´s bad to be bare and virtual clothes are, well ... But she can´t say anything against them now, because of that feature about you in Vogue. I mean, if you´ve been in Vogue, you´re all right, no matter what she thinks ... Boy, Mary, your skin feels good. Never felt anything like it.’
Anne asked, “How´s the ‘Battle of the Bra´ going?’
“Oh, you know ... Mom wants me to wear one, now I´m getting bigger. I told her I´d try it; I try to be fair. Only thing is, a bra´s uncomfortable and looks stupid because I don´t really need one. So, I only wear it when I have to, to keep the peace ... Hey, I got a virtual blouse the other day.’
“Tried it out yet?’ Mary asked.
“No. Hate to put it on unless I can show it off. Maybe wear it for Tim. No, he couldn´t deal with that ... I´ll think of something.’
“I´ll bring one for you next time,’ Iris said, “you can try it here, see what you think.’
“Okay, thanks. Let´s wait ‘til it´s cloudy ... How was your trip?’
“Great. Sigrid´s cousin, Kristin, is wonderful and beautiful. We had a ball and we´re going to do a lot of business over there.’
“Don´t they wear clothes there?’ Jane asked.
“Of course they ... Oops, you´re kidding. We were just talking about it when you came. Like I said, Anne, there´s twenty-seven countries in the EU. And twenty-seven sets of body codes, maybe more, none of them the same as ours. We´re going to have to handle each market differently.’
“That many different lines?’
“No, but maybe ten or a dozen different approaches. Wait till you see ... No, give me a minute.’ Iris ran into the house, returned with a handful of photographs.
“Look, the north – Scandinavia, Germany – they´re very open about the body – this is a nude beach -- there are lots of them; they have naked saunas – see? And, here´s a picture our German partner took of Sigrid, Kristin and me.’ The snapshot showed Sigrid in a long, blue, flowered virtual dress with short sleeves and scoop neck, Kristin in a virtual polo and shorts, and Iris in a skirt with a virtual blouse, walking down a busy, tree-lined street.
“That´s the Kurfürstendamm, the main street in Berlin.’
“Wow,’ said Jane. “You guys look fabulous. Didn´t you get in trouble?’
“That´s what´s really wild. We hardly caused a stir. A few guys whistled, but our friend told us they were probably tourists. Besides, we saw other people with virtual clothes. Probably got them from our Internet site. There´s a big park in Berlin, and part of it – here, look – is used by nude sunbathers all the time. And look at this.’ The picture showed the interior of a pharmacy.
“See that woman pharmacist behind the counter? This is France, down in the south, really warm day. She´s wearing a vee-neck cotton sweater with no sides and nothing under it. See right there?’
Iris handed the pictures around. “We dressed virtual nearly everywhere, even in Paris. A couple of places we went for dinner wouldn´t seat us, said we didn´t have a reservation, but the French gal who was with us said they do that to anyone; it wasn´t our clothes. In fact, she took us to one really fancy place; they gave us the best table in the restaurant, and we weren´t the only ones dressed virtually.’
Mary turned to Jane. “How are you getting along with Tim?’
“Crazy. We were at his house the other day, out back? I let him kiss me.’
“How´d you like it?’
“Oh, fine. It wasn´t the first time, you know about that. But we were standing up, and I rubbed up against him ... He started feeling me up. I let him do my breasts and my ass. It really felt great, but I made him stop when he started getting hard. I told him I didn´t want to get him too frustrated.’
Anne said, “There´s ways of dealing with that.’
“I know, Mary told me. I want to try it. But it wasn´t safe there. I need to find someplace where I can, you know, try things out without worrying. And besides, Tim´s not the only one. I mean, there´s another guy I´d like to ... um ...’
“Rub up against?’ Mary asked.
“Yeah, well I think so. I don´t know him that well yet, he might turn out to be hard to handle. Or, an idiot.’
“How´d you feel after you let Tim feel you up?’
“Wonderful. Horny. When I got home I went right up to my room and played with myself. Came like crazy. But that´s as far as I go until I can find someplace safe. You and Anne had that – at home or whatever. Maybe I should ask my Dad what to do.’
Anne and Mary looked at each other and grinned. Anne said, “Think he´s ready for that?’
“Well, I have to sneak around my Mom, Anne. I don´t want to do that with Dad, he´s always been fair and on my side when the chips are down. I guess he´ll learn to deal with it.’
“What are you looking for, Jane?’ Iris asked, “someplace you can take a boy and screw him?’
“Not right now, Iris. I´m not ready for that. I still have nightmares now and then. I guess I don´t really know. I want it all, you know. I want to take Tim someplace where we can play with each other, learn about sex, and still be able to get help if I need it.’
“Tall order, Jane,’ Mary said. “Anyway, once you start something you better be ready to finish it. And ...’
Jane spoke in chorus with her, “Take responsibility.’
Jane chuckled. “Yeah ... Well, I´m in no hurry. I´m going to live to be a hundred, Dad says. It won´t hurt me to wait a few months or a few years even. But it sure is fun.’
“As long as it´s people you love,’ Mary said.
“There´s lots of people you can love, Mary,’ Jane said. “I´ve learned that from all of you. Lots of people you can love, if you love yourself. And loving people is all right.’
Thank you all for reading. I appreciate your comments.
Look for another story, "The Freiburg Project", soon.